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29 May 2010

Some good friends of ours recently bought a new (used) vehicle. It's a Suzuki 'something.' Can't remember. Sorry. What I do remember is that some people lovingly call it 'the tractor' and others call it 'the shopping cart.' It's basically really cute and tiny and might I say it's also zippy? You know... just zips all over the place in all of it's wonderful smallness!

Aaaaanyway, the other day on the way to a Mom's group we loaded up our babies through the back door. Way easier than fitting them in from behind the front seats.

You can kind of get the 'scale' of the vehicle by the guitar case. Same width. HA!

Aren't they are hysterical in their shades?! B and N sweated clear across the city and back. Never made a peep. Although they might have snuck in a little hand-holding when we weren't looking...

My sweet daughter is 5 months old today. In honor of her 5 months of life I will now show you more pictures of her outside on the balcony than you care to see.

But you can just deal with it cause I'm her Mom and I already deleted a bunch of them and frankly, I could post a thousand pictures of her on here that look exactly the same to the typical blog-reader and no one could stop me. It is MY blog, after all.

So, each year I document the first rain on this blog. Usually I accompany it with some picture or cute story. But this year, no pictures. No funny story.

It happened late last night. Yesterday was excruciatingly hot. The kind of hot that makes you feel like you're in a coma. Or that your body can't possibly function at this temperature. Or that you're on the brink of insanity. Or that you are must be an absolute mental case because you decided to move here. Or that this place is like Mars and life here is just bazaar. Or that you are just DONE, and would like to board a plane now. NOW!!

Yesterday was all of those combined.

That was followed by an evening dust-storm that left the football (soccer) players running for their lives in the opposite direction of the giant orange dust cloud that we could literally watch spread across the city (and the football pitch behind our house).

And THAT was followed by a little sprinkle of rain. Just enough to make me rush outside to gather my swing cushions and my solar lamps. And just enough to make our car look REALLY dirty today. (See prior post here regarding raining mud.) Anyway, it wasn't enough to drown the city or pour down the walls inside our house. We have those rain storms to look forward in the future.

But THAT was followed by an actual cloudy day. Which is shocking. Clouds are SO rare here, that actually shocked me more this morning than the first rain did last night!

And THAT was followed by a day where the temperatures are a bit lower. It's only 100 degrees out now at nearly 5pm.

And so goes the summer... excruciating heat, then a big dirty dust storm, then rain, then the temperatures cool down a bit only to slowly build up again to excruciating, etc, etc.

And around and around we go on the summer weather cycle. You get the point. It's super fun.

16 May 2010

It's terrible, but I think I could count the times my baby girl has been bathed on my two hands. It's kind of embarrassing how rarely I bathe her (Okay. Really embarrassing)... especially considering the dust. The girl hardly touches the floor and she still gets dusty toe jam, finger jam, and neck jam! Yet I let her stay in her dusty state for days at a time! Oh well, just being honest!

Anyway, today I bathed her! Do I get a gold star? (No. No gold stars for me. Gold stars only go to Mommies who bathe their sweet babies daily!)

13 May 2010

Today I have a houseful! Besides my two children, I am watching two other little girls while their parents are busy. It has been a bit crazy, but manageable.

Our morning activity was splashing in the pool! It took some coaxing to get them to sit and smile. BeLIEVE me... they were not sitting on their bottoms in a circle making kind little splashes the whole time. Or EVER except for half second it took to snap this picture.

...including some curious peering over the balcony to see what is in the street!

Look at those little bottoms!

The afternoon activity is... NAPS!!! Well, not for me. Boo.

And for one brief moment (lasting approximately 15 minutes) all four of my littles were sleeping!!

19 month Salome, asleep in the big bed... with her little dolly lying on top of her...

14 month Natalie, sleeping in my daughter's bed in the guest room.

My baby girl, sleeping on the couch.

And my boy in his bed.

And me? No, I'm not sleeping. I'm blogging (duh) while Natalie eats her lunch a few feet from me. But do I get some kind of award or something for getting 4 kids under the age of 3 to sleep simultaneously?

*Imaginary person whispering in my ear*

Oh, I see. There is no award. But I the satisfaction of my success. Greaaat... thanks.

10 May 2010

There is a new(ish) supermarket in our part of town. Today I drove up there to check it out. Usually a supermarket of this caliber is only found in the main part of the city... but not anymore! I drove up there WITHOUT CHILDREN (amen and hallelujah) in our new (old) Pajero. More about that Pajero another day...

Anyway.

This market even had a parking lot people. With lines. Granted... no one seemed to know how you're supposed to use such a lot. But that's okay. I kinda like the park-anywhere-you-please attitude anyway. Most of the time.

I walk in the shiny glass doors and choose a shopping cart. I think I have been in three stores in this country where I have used a shopping cart. It glided so nicely across the the tile floors that were being constantly cleaned. I walked slowly around the store seeing everything they have. And they have a lot.

For some reason I find it so relaxing to just be able to push my cart around looking at this or that. This is true no matter where I am in the world. It actually has nothing to do with purchasing anything. It's just nice to look. Prices are marked. Some things are written in English. It's clean. It's cool. It's a one-stop-shop even though it's only about the size of a 7/11.

A few of my exciting purchases follow.

Sayga bread! There are only two brands of sliced bread in the city. Zeena and Sayga. Sayga is much more soft and yummy, but I have had a hard time finding it lately... but there it was!!

Ceres juice. I discovered this juice when I was pregnant for my boy and couldn't stomach much but fruit and cereal. There is no added sugar. That, my friends, is virtually a miracle! It used to be very common, but these days I haven't' seen it. Until now! 7 SDG is about $2.50. That's kinda steep (okay... really steep). But I'm not gonna think about that. It seems like such a luxury item here and I don't like buying it, but we started giving H one serving a day to help him drink more fluids in this heat. Nothing can motivate him to drink like 'Whispers of Summer.'

Yeah. That's a new flavor. Sounds funny, but looks good!

Maraschino cherries! Bring on the pineapple upsidedown cake! This was definitely a splurge at 6 1/2 SDG (about $2.60). But I'll serve them to guests (justification #1) and they'll last a little while (justification #2).

Liquid vanilla. LIQUID! Powder vanilla is common around here, but liquid vanilla is really hit and miss. Today it was a hit!

Brown rice!!! I had given up on finding brown rice. The white stuff is aplenty. But brown? Not so much. I was very excited. Let's not talk about how much 12 SDG is. Okay. Lets. It's almost $5. I would NEVER pay that in America, but frankly I am becoming a little numb to the high prices in this city. You gotta pay what you gotta pay, right? (as long as I don't go over my monthly budget!) I bought this solely for the health of my family.

:)

And I got these glasses free with my purchase of sugar!

I know, I know. Sugar? Wasn't I just saying something about the health of my family? I can't remember...

Among the items that unfortunately did not get placed in my gliding cart were HaagenDazs ice cream, decaffeinated Nescafe, cake mixes, cream cheese, and red and yellow peppers! These may sound like normal grocery items to you (except the decaf instant coffee... I realize no American drinks that but me)... but they are not common in my life in this side of the world.

06 May 2010

When H wakes up from his nap he doesn't get out of bed...he waits until I come and get him.

There is a window that leads from his bedroom to the hallway (we have lots of interior windows to help with cross-breeze) and he likes to push back the curtain and peer down the hallway to see what he can see. Usually he just sees the laundry drying, but if he gives the glass a little tap and I hear it... I get excited that he's awake and come and tackle him in bed!

04 May 2010

These two were snoozing on the big bed the other night while their parents were having a roaring time playing Outburst. Benjamin (I can't help but call him Benny) is 2 months older than my girlie. They're already little buds...

03 May 2010

The other night we were leaving our team meeting. We were all kinda tired and I was a bit relieved to be headed back to my home to eat dinner! Mike was carrying our daughter in her carrier and I called out for my boy as we were leaving the compound. I couldn't see him and I was hoping he hadn't run back into the house for another drink of water or to play 'open, close, open, close' with the doors again.